Using fear in your sales letter

12 March 2009

It is often necessary to explain what the reader will miss, lose out on or suffer from not buying when writing your sales or marketing letter.

Most sales letters require an element of fear to persuade the reader to buy. In the examples we illustrate the risks are either implicit or explicit.

The disadvantages of not buying do not always need to be emphasised particularly strongly. It depends on the promotion you are creating.

THE FIRST STEP — TUNING YOUR READERS IN
The people you will be writing to will need help in understanding the message in your sales letter. This is called acclimatisation. We do it all the time, especially when the person is not used to our voice.

When, for example, we make a telephone call, things go more smoothly if we first introduce ourselves in order to get the listener’s attention. This acclimatises the listener to the way we communicate.

Then we ask for confirmation that the listener is on our wavelength — often just a ‘how are things?’ to establish two-way communication. Next we explain the reason for our call to get their interest. Then, if it’s a business call, we explain how we may be able to help them in some way. Then we might ask for some kind of action.

Unless this procedure is followed in your sales letter or marketing letter, it will fail.

But remember — there’s a difference between a conversation and a sales letter. Your promotion is a one way communication and you haven’t the advantage of asking questions or assessing your reader’s reaction. That is why the sample sales letters on this site are often constructed in a similar way.